the Shroud

the Faer

The Faer, more commonly known as 'the Shroud,' is an aspect of the Anon (Magic) created by Fairy to hide their kind from the hostile Human beyond their Elder Tree. The Shroud is gifted to all fairy. It is an aura around the fairy that creates a perception filter to any humans in line of sight. The human brain will simply not acknowledge the fairy being present. This is not invisibly, it just tells the human, subconsciously, to not pay attention. If the person is forced to see the fairy, such as the fairy being in confined space the human looks into, the fairy can be seen (Wisdom check with disadvantage to break the Shroud). Once the particular human sees the fairy, the Shroud is broken for that person, and they will always be able to see any fairy from then on. A fact fairy are keenly away of, as it could mean the doom of their people if the wrong person breaks the Shroud. Note: the Shroud only works on adult humans, human children under the age of 10 are unaffected by the magic. After the age of 10 the Shroud alters their perception.

The Shroud varies slightly in the different Reaches of Ethae.

In Jerain the Shroud is strongest, with two surviving elder trees powering it. The Shroud is as stated above, however, there is a ritual the fairies can perform to create a stronger version of the Shroud, known as the Faerrai. The Faerrai is a ritual of the Aos si fairy, that bond the bloodline of a fairy to a human. Once the ritual is completed only that human and his/her blood relatives will be able to see that fairy. The fairy gains a permanent invisibility to all other humans. (Note: this will break if the fairy attacks someone. The attack breaks the Shroud for the human attacked only. The invisibility still applies to all others.) This ritual is rarely performed, and requires the consent of elder tree Hamis, who's sap is used in the ritual to create the Faerrai bond. This is often done for fairies to act as guides, guardians, and friends to powerful noble families that can and are willing to aid in the protection of fairy kind and their elder tree. A fairy that undergoes the Faerrai will have a connection to their elder tree no matter how far away they travel, and do not suffer the same depression and requirement to return to the tree regularly.

In Anbar, with no surviving elder trees, the Shroud is much weaker. While the above still apply to all humans, those that have magical abilities (i.e., wizards, clerics, etc.) can make a Wisdom check without disadvantage to break the Shroud any time they are in the visual presence of a fairy, even of that fairy is in their peripheral vision. As such, those very rare fairies that travel away from their forests on Inage Island try to keep out of sight, just in case.

The Shroud fails completely in Novyum. Generally there are no known fairies native to the Northern Reach in the modern day. As such the citizens of the nations believe fairies are only fantasy. A fairy-tale as they call it. Fairies from other lands known this well, any traveling to Novyum, for whatever reason, avoid human populated areas.